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In this week's "Best of Syrup" post, we'd like to bring your attention to this unbelievable-holy-cow-did-that-actually-happen story: . And living to tell the tale.
Andrew Burridge had been aware of cougar sightings in the area when he ventured out to Singing Pass Trail on June 24.
"I was aware of the cougar sightings and the closures around the bike park and so forth. So I checked these and the trail up to the hut wasn't closed, that section of [Garibaldi Park] wasn't closed,” he said. “But I am not naive … cougars move, as do all other animals. And so a mild bit of trepidation, but I didn't feel that I was doing something silly.”
The following day, around 8 a.m., he began his hike down from the hut. Some seven kilometres late, he noticed some movement on the trail ahead.
"I immediately knew it was something big," he recalled, believing it was black bears.
At one point, a cougar was "within touching distance" and standing over Burridge as he was on the ground (he had lost his footing).
Read the full story on the .
In other news, we've now learned that the Izman Creek wildfire burning north of Lytton was accidentally started by .
Police confirmed a wheel fell off a trailer hauling an RCMP boat on Tuesday afternoon on Highway 12, sending a shower of sparks into the ditch and igniting what's now become a 130-hectare blaze.
"It’s hard to describe, but it was almost like there was gasoline on the ground or something. The grass is so dry that all those sparks just immediately were flames," said one witness, who was driving behind the trailer, with one vehicle separating them.
The RCMP’s Underwater Recovery Team was towing its boat back to the Lower Mainland from nearby Seton Lake, where Mounties had been searching for a swimmer believed to have drowned after diving in off a cliff.
A who regularly fishes for Dungeness crabs is asking people not to poach crab traps off the shore from Tsawwassen Causeway Beach.
"The poaching is bad," Don Kennett told the Optimist, noting it's easy to poach because the water is shallow.
This year, his crab trap has been poached two or three times. Last year, it was a half dozen times.
"Please crab legally," he said. "Please don't poach."
And lastly, qathet resident Amanda Hagglund decided to do something a little different this Canada Day. She , about an hour hike from downtown Powell River.
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Each week, we'll highlight three (or more) stories on Syrup in this best of article.
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Video produced by Alanna Kelly
